Urial

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A species of wild sheep, notable for its large size and spiraled horns, typically inhabiting steep and rocky areas of Central and South Asia
2. This wild sheep is distinguished by its impressive curved horns and strong physique, commonly found in mountainous terrains of Central and South Asia
3. A large wild sheep known for its distinctive twisted horns, residing primarily in the rugged mountain regions of Central and South Asia

Etymology: The urial is a wild sheep of the Himalayas and surrounding mountains, and its English name travelled a long way to reach it. The word was borrowed from Pothohari Punjabi, a dialect spoken in the Pothohar Plateau of northern Pakistan, where the local name for the animal was "huṛiāl." That form descends from Sanskrit "huḍa," the older word that lies behind it. The English term is thus a loan from a regional language of South Asia rather than from the classical or European languages that supply most of the vocabulary of natural history. Its path into English is a story of colonial-era naturalists and travellers who encountered the animal in the Indian subcontinent and needed a name for it, adopting the local word rather than coining one from Latin or Greek.